Connection Terminated: Vertigo
by Pyroteknix
Summary: *SEQUEL to Connection Terminated* Ivan is still hellbent on destroying the Bladebreaker rebels after his loss to them but when the rebels create a computer program that could destroy the internet and thus the world, Ivan sees an opportunity for victory
1. Calm before the Storm

Connection Terminated: Vertigo  
  
(This is the sequel to Connection Terminated.)  
  
Calm before the Storm  
  
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2:34, Zeus hangar, Somewhere in Russia  
  
Lying in the shadow of the downed behemoth, Zeus, Ivan Elmdor, dictator and part-time mastermind of world domination scheme, typed away on his laptop feverishly, oblivious to the pain that resulted from his endless working and, among others, the ungodly time of day. His unusually casual green shirt was practically dripping his sweat onto the grimy floor as he shifted his seating on his newfound chair, a wooden crate. He'd been hacking all night long after he had found a lead on his most hated and irritating group of freedom fighters, his fingers incessantly typing away like it was the end of the world. Even his most loyal servants, the three ruthless agents known as Drake, Sarah and Jex, began to question his sanity as he worked madly. But he was not mad yet and there was a method to his madness. Ivan's bitbeast/combat program, Arcford, was sifting through the web, interrogating, the word he used as a substitute for "threatening", for information and a few days back, he had hit pay dirt. "Pirates attacking an apparently inhabited oilrig in the seas south of the Philippines." The "voluntary" informant revealed, a basic fact, as the owner of the program was a tabloid reporter based in Borneo and piracy happened all the time. But there was more to this than met Ivan's cunning eye. The reporter mentioned the inhabitants of the oilrig fighting back with antiquated guns and rifles but the real deciding factor was the mech they had pulled out of nowhere. Bingo. Ivan already knew that the SEA branch of the rebel army, even when still located somewhere in Malaysia, was really low-tech, the worst of the worst when it came to computers and mechanized warfare. There was only one logical explanation for their sudden acquisition of sophisticated weaponry and technology. He just needed to find them.  
  
16:15, SEA rebel base, somewhere in the middle of the sea  
  
Max gave out a whoop of delight as he raced through the perimeter of the oilrig that doubled as the Southeast Asian branch on the Jet Ski designed for patrolling the base. It had been quite a while since they had even had a hint about Ivan and his so-called "government" and he was definitely enjoying the well-deserved break after a few years of fighting. Sure, it had taken them a couple of months to actually pinpoint the exact location of the irritatingly well-hidden SEA base but this proved good as it also kept away their enemies and created a sort of carefree attitude within the compound. "Hey, Max! We have a meeting in a couple of minutes!" Max looked up from his reckless driving as Emily waved frantically at him, standing precariously at the edge of the oilrig's expansive deck. "I'll head back, wait for me!" He shouted back and made a tight turn around another pillar, the ocean spraying into his blonde hair as he zoomed back to the central part of his new base.  
  
Earlier- Ray muttered a curse under his breath and ran like hell through the winding, leaky corridors of the SEA base, glancing at his watch and cursing again. Well, obviously enough, he was late. Right now, he was probably devoting 50% percent of his mind to running and the rest to wondering why Mariah didn't reset the alarm clock. Which is a really stupid thing to do. Tripping over a loose wire while running full speed down the hall, he slammed into his temporary branch leader, Wesley Rodriguez. "Kon, watch where you're going." The tanned brown-haired leader said and helped up the Chinese rebel to his feet. "What's the hurry anyway?" He said and Ray stared at him in disbelief. "You set this meeting, shouldn't you be responsible?" Ray asked, simultaneously removing some dust from his shirt. Wesley looked at him with a raised eyebrow for a while and then snapped his fingers. "You're the guy who shares a room with Mariah, right?" He asked casually and Ray nodded. "She rigged your alarm. The meeting doesn't start in 30 minutes." Wesley continued and walked down the hall, whistling happily. Ray, blinking, suddenly realized something and ran after his branch leader. "Hey! When did she tell you that?" "This morning at breakfast. Hey, I'm a chick magnet." Wesley called back and continued his walk down the hall to the operations room.  
  
A couple of minutes after. . . "Okay people, let's start this meeting." Kai squirmed in his seat, already bored to death by waiting for the esteemed leader. Besides, he was really pissed off with the fact that he had almost no power whatsoever here, courtesy of Rodriguez. And here he was, forced to listen to this insolent little idiot who had probably just gotten out of his schooling in the mainland. At least he made Ray irritated at Mariah, and in turn, she got mad at him. That was entertainment for good- old Kai. "Raul from the labs is going to show us a new design for our computer mainframe." Kai's P.O.V  
  
Computer mainframe my ass. They call dumping thousands of potentially lethal computer viruses in their system a mainframe? They built a wall to protect nothing. What brainless morons.  
  
"This is the blueprint for our new system. Advanced Logistics and Electronics Controller."  
  
Raul. The little child prodigy from Malaysia. I've got to hand it to him, he's pretty smart. This project looks promising. If only it wasn't for this hell base.  
  
"It's also known as Alec. After documenting and researching the rebels' bitbeasts, we've successfully created a design for a program that will emulate what any bitbeast can do. Special thanks to Kai and his somewhat rapid deletion of our test programs."  
  
Ray's not exactly on the best of terms with me now. How simple it was to take over his testing slot and show them the power of Dranzer. He shouldn't have, ahem, spent too much time in his room that night.  
  
"But this is designed to exceed the bitbeasts' capacities. It can access multiple servers at once, take over domains, order complete lockdowns and gain control over every single aspect of a computer. Even your last solitaire score is open to Alec."  
  
This sounds risky. A super-program that can almost do anything online? What if the government takes possession of Alec? They'll know every location of our bases. The war would be over and they would be the winners of it. This also reinforces the theory that the Internet is like selling your privacy.  
  
"It was designed to resemble a teenage boy on the Internet and will be able to manipulate objects and things around him thanks to our unique programming. Call it telekinesis if you want. His battle capacity is enormous as we watched how multiple viruses destroy each other and integrated it with his learning ability."  
  
No, with this weapon, any side can control the fate of our planet. Almost everything nowadays is connected to the net. He can indirectly take over a system and still do major damage up close and personal. Thankfully, he's still in the creation process. Alec is a threat to international security. I pity Ivan and his army now.  
  
"Of course, we still need a couple of months (Researching those rebels' technology, hehe) before we finish but once we have Alec in our computer, the war will be over! So, the meeting is finished and you guys can have your snacks or whatever in your rooms."  
  
15:09, Training facility, Somewhere in Russia  
  
Drake Kolnikov was standing in the middle of the circular training room of the government's top agents, holding his old yet lethal wakizashi at his hip as he waited for his challenge. They were testing something new today. Something deadly new. "Drake, the Vire are entering the room. These are the old models, we just want to compare them with their big brothers later." Sarah's calm voice said over a speaker as she watched from a reinforced observation and control deck in the upper portion of the dome. "If worst comes to worst, Jex is on standby." She added and what appeared to be mini-floodgates opened and released one old Vire, the first of what would become a breed of inhuman fighting machines. It's arms bent, practically scratching the ground and sort of did a cross between a leap and a stride to get within range of Drake, moving like the wind itself. It jumped up, showcasing all of its spectacular leg power and extended 10 finger blades as it reared up for the kill. Drake brought his sword out and parried the attack, ducking as the Vire fell behind him. He swooped backwards and slashed of its confused head, ending the first run in a couple of seconds.  
  
"Here comes the second one."  
  
And here's the scary part: Something came in. You just couldn't see it. Something black and really fast was watching him from the walls. Drake raised an eyebrow as he tried to keep his eyes on the blur that was his prey. "Sarah, is this even a Vire?"  
  
"Model 2. Just a prototype."  
  
"Yeah, just a prototype. Whatever." Drake replied and rushed at the wall where the Vire supposedly was when it attacked, pouncing like a cat. All 50 kilograms of mutated flesh and machine jumped from its perch on the wall, landing on all fours a few meters behind Drake. Its flashing red eye in the middle of its oval face, it pounced on Drake who immediately blocked the attack with his sword. It ducked as he slashed at his face and somersaulted backwards as he slashed again. Pouncing straight at Drake, it twisted in midair, avoiding another slash and swiping away the sword. Drake rolled backwards and caught its lunge in midair, kicking it away in the stomach. The Vire landed on its skeletal arms, bounced backwards and jumped at Drake again, blocking a kick and cutting him across the face with his finger blades. Drake flipped the beast onto its back and punched it across the face, cracking its neck. "There! That should stop you." Unfortunately, it didn't. The neck snapped back into place and the Vire kicked him in the stomach with the full force of his spring-loaded legs. Drake grabbed a pipe hanging from the ceiling, as he was sent flying and spun like an acrobat before dropping back to the floor. He picked up his sword just as the Vire pounced on him again and he jammed the blade into its stomach. It must've sneered at him behind that sleek black facemask because it grabbed the sword even while it was slammed through his body and pulled, bringing Drake nearer to his incisor-like claws. It raised its right hand up to cut through Drake's face when bullets burst through its head, spraying oil and blood all over the pale white government agent. The Vire slid off, stumbled backwards and fell, dead. "Satisfactory results for that Vire, I guess." Jex said as he walked over to the corpse, his twin pistols still smoking from the hyper-accurate shots he fired at it just a while ago. "Satisfactory! That thing kept coming back! If only we found those damn rebels now, we'd kill them all!" Drake sputtered, wiping his own blood and the blood of the poor rebel who was mutated to become a Vire from his face. He felt the open slashes across his cheek and shook his head in disbelief. "It makes the old one look, well, old." Jex added and examined his pistols as the two walked over to the elevator that would take them away from the training center.  
  
"Which is a good thing, as Blaze and Ice more or less have the location of the SEA rebel base. Get packed, Jex. You're going with some soldiers there next week when they accurately get the location." Sarah's voice said over the speaker again, this time with Ivan's laughing voice in the background. "I was a genius to rehire those two." They heard him say from behind Sarah's back. "This time, they aren't expecting us. This time, we're going to kill them. Slowly and painfully."  
  
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Watcha think? This is just the start so the story hasn't progressed so far yet. More to come! 


	2. Sanctuario

Connection Terminated: Vertigo  
  
Sanctuario  
  
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A week ago, the SEA rebels had conceived the basic design and element for A.L.E.C (Advanced Logistics and Electronics Controller), a super-powerful program. A few days ago, they discovered that "Sanctuary", a giant mobile fortress that resembled a large ship / submarine, was developing a special hacking program that would be crucial in the creation of A.L.E.C. A few minutes ago, Wesley, Tyson and Kai had boarded a raiding ship and made their way across the now typhoon stricken seas to infiltrate the floating armament known as "Sanctuary" and capture that valuable packet of code- breaking power.  
  
21:42, beside the hull of Sanctuary, Somewhere in the South China Sea  
  
"All right! Stay on standby as we board Sanctuary!" Wesley shouted to the pilot of the relatively quick and agile boat that they used to come within poking distance of Sanctuary as he and the two former Central China branch rebels climbed up the side of the immense ship, shrugging off the powerful winds and rain that was beating down on them. "Okay! We'll sneak in through that shaft that leads to the maintenance level of Sanctuary and make our way from there!" He continued, shouting to be heard over the storm that raged around them. "I'll handle the guards." Kai responded coldly and reached for the sniper rifle that hung loosely from the back of his form- fitting suit that they (CC rebels) had brought from their old base. "Minimal confrontation, okay? We'll let Kai pick off any sentries with the rifle and if worst comes to worst, I have my revolver and you have your pistols." The SEA rebel branch leader said, turning to Tyson and nodding to the Japanese rebel. "Gotcha." Tyson said and tapped his twin guns for some reassurance before watching Kai easily dispose of the two guards stationed near the small hole. "We're clear, let's go." Kai said blandly before sprinting across the deck of Sanctuary and folding his rifle back into its holster behind him.  
  
High above the quiet and nearly noiseless scene below, two pairs of eyes watched intently from behind light gray facemasks as the three rebels jumped into the tiny shaft that led down to the maintenance deck of Sanctuary. One of the two observers, the sleek light red and orange bodysuit complimenting the person's lithe frame, shifted from the perch on the rooftop and turned to face the other watcher. "And the games begin, sister." A male voice, predominantly Chinese, again, said to his counterpart, who was in an identical uniform, excluding the light blue and orange color scheme. "How true." She replied and the two leaped off from their perch on the rooftop.  
  
21:50, Maintenance deck, Inside Sanctuary, Somewhere in the South China Sea  
  
Tyson Kinomiya pressed his back against the cold wall of the deck, keeping as silent as he could to avoid being noticed by the guards that just passed by the corridor he was standing in a few seconds ago. Quietly attaching a suppressor to one of his shiny silver pistols, he closed his eyes in determination and rushed out, surprising the government soldiers. Two shots quickly shut the mouths of the alerted guards and Tyson shook his head in regret for having spent another pair of human lives. "Never got over that "pity" thing, did you?" Tyson turned around to face Wesley who was running up to him and to the stairs behind the Japanese rebel. "I pity you." He added as he went up the stairs, his antique revolver drawn and ready for fire. Tyson scratched his nose and stared at the rebel in puzzlement as Kai tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, focus. We're not out of the woods yet." Kai said and patted his comrade on the back before running up the stairs to the next floor. ""Out of the woods"?" He repeated, acting in his normal, ignorant way. "Argh, never mind." Kai replied as Tyson chased his two other rebel allies. Suddenly, Wesley grabbed both of them by the collar of their tight uniforms and pushed them into a small broom closet, where the three of them hid for a while. "Damn! Sentries! They'll spot those bodies and WHAM! They'll know we're onboard." Rodriguez said and fingered his revolver. He grinned maniacally and pointed it at Kai's head. "What the fuck?" Kai said as Wesley promptly readied his pistol, the clicking echoing inside the enclosed space. A gunshot reverberated inside Tyson's ears as their "great" leader jerked his gun a few inches to the right at the last moment and ricocheted a shot off the reinforced wall, out of the small gap in the door and straight into the heads of three sentries, walking side by side. Kai presently grabbed Wesley by the throat and glared at him meaningfully before pushing open the door of the cabinet. "Deranged bastard." Kai mumbled as the two other rebels caught up with the irritated former rebel branch leader. "Lighten up." Tyson said cheerily as they shoved the last door that separated them from the supposedly heavily guarded operations deck. "What happened here?" Wesley asked quietly, his voice numb with disbelief as he stared at the bloodstained steel floor and corpses that lay askew across the corridor. "One man did this. Single blade marks across the wall and one set of footprints leading away from the carnage." Kai observed, walking over to a wall and feeling a slash mark on it. "He did it quickly too. The blood smells fresh." Wesley added, not to be outdone by Hiwatari. Tyson's face grew a sickly green as he imagined what his emotionally dead comrades talked about and shook his head to remove the feeling. "Let's forget this and snatch that program! We better get out of this place already." He said hastily, pointing towards the door across the narrow hall. His view was promptly blocked as a red and orange blur dropped from a ventilation shaft, turning around to face the three rebels with a cold, empty facemask. "I think not." The male warrior said icily, reaching for the katana that lay on a sheath on his back. Kai grabbed one of Tyson's pistols and pointed it at the ninja-like person in front of them, eyeing him warily. "You did this, didn't you?" He asked in a cold voice and a laugh broke his train of thought. "If I wanted to stop you, I wouldn't have killed all these people, would I, Kai Hiwatari?" The ninja replied and Kai gritted his teeth, firing shot after shot at the immobile form of the opposing soldier. Steel flew out in a seamless dance as the man blocked the shots of his opponent with ease, probably smirking from behind the mask. "I can vouch for him." They whirled around, Wesley and Tyson drawing their weapons, as a female one dropped from another hole in the ceiling. "GO!" Wesley yelled and he and Tyson fired endlessly at the blue-clad warrior, who, following the feat of her predecessor, deflected each and every shot that came from the muzzles of the rebels' guns with her own silver katana as if an invisible shield surrounded her. "No way!" Tyson shouted in disbelief as the two warriors twirled their swords around for a while and pointed it at the clumped group of rebels. "You can surrender or become a stain on that wall. You choose." The girl added and inched closer for emphasis, the tip of her blade glinting in the fluorescence of the overhead lamps. Tyson raised an eyebrow and grinned at the two before shooting out the lights and kicking open a door in the side of the thin hall. "Get in, I think this leads to the outside!" Tyson said and fired a few more shots into the corridor to confuse the twin assailants.  
  
"Thermal scanning activated. They're heading for the training zone, of all places." The female one said quietly, her eyes watching the red outline of the three rebels from behind the now scarlet heads up display of her helmet. Her teammate smirked under the faceplate and folded his sword back into his sheath and giving chase. "Why are they so stupid all the time?" The first replied and dashed through the interior of the complex.  
  
22:22, Training Deck, Inside Sanctuary, Somewhere in the South China Sea  
  
The three rebels stopped as they entered the spacious training arena for all temporary soldiers aboard Sanctuary, shocked by the sheer emptiness of the humongous training ground. "Welcome to the training grounds, Kai Hiwatari, Tyson Kinomiya and Wesley Rodriguez. Quite large, right?" They looked up to see the two soldiers that they encountered earlier, standing in the midst of the empty observation seats above the central area. Tyson pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the unarmed twosome, staring them down with the same icy glare as Kai. The red one reached for something dangling from his throat and the three rebels immediately assumed a more rigid stance towards the soldier. Kai's eyes narrowed below the two as he noticed a glimmer of red on the silver chain and realized what it was. "A dragon . . . Blaze and Ice." Kai said quietly and Tyson stared at him in pure and honest disbelief. A laugh echoed through the arena and the two reached for a button on the side of their blank white facemasks, activating a filter that revealed their faces. "Ivan was only happy to once again hire the most prolific hunters in the entire world to track and kill you pests. He even supplied us with these new suits." Blaze explained, his mouth curving into a malicious grin. Ice nudged him in the ribs and he nodded in response. "Sorry, back to the point." He apologized and pressed down on his dragon pendant, activating a trapdoor to open from in front of the three rebels. "You know them?" Wesley shouted over the din of the opening floor, clutching his revolver. Kai nodded grimly and reached for his sniper rifle, his eyes simultaneously scanning for the most suitable sniping position. "Long story." He explained as they watched something immense rise from the elevating platform, unwinding from its crouched position. "Luckily enough, you two walked into the testing area for our new anti-Frame machinery. A battle trial and the elimination of three nosy little rebels." Ice said coldly and folded her arms across her chest as she watched the machine rise to its unprotected legs and whir to artificial life. Tyson whacked his head and quickly took aim, taking useless potshots against the unfinished weapon. The bullets bounced off harmlessly and didn't even incur a flinch from the behemoth as it lumbered towards them, unfolding the arm-less shoulders to reveal a huge stock of armaments. "Damn." Wesley commented and rolled to the side as it fired a burst of machine gun fire at him, responding with a well-placed shot to the insides of one shoulder. The spent uranium ammunition ricocheted around the weapons, seriously debilitating the offensive capabilities of the anti-Frame giant. (A/N: Frames are giant mechs that utilize dual intelligence control, in the form of bitbeasts/ programs and humans. See "Connection Terminated") It scoped out the assailant and fired a net designed to capture infantry towards the SEA rebel branch leader, successfully keeping him out of the remainder of the battle as he struggled to break free. A sniper bullet distracted its mechanized thoughts as it pierced a small pneumatic pipe that was somewhere near the core, igniting a berserker kind of attack pattern. Kai quickly ducked under the crate he was pressed against and closed his eyes as a flurry of bullets flew past his previous location. "Tyson! Hit the central area!" Kai yelled, flinching as another burst of fire blasted into the crate that protected him. Tyson, who was hiding under a piece of the ceiling that somehow crashed to the dull blue floor, nodded and loaded his weapons. Tyson rolled out and aimed his weapons for the relatively large generator in the middle portion of the lumbering machine. His shots immediately took effect on the massive armament and forced the robot backwards.  
  
Above the firefight, Ice's eye twitched as she watched the rebels slowly gaining ground and compulsively reached for the Famas repeating pistol at her side. "Not yet." Blaze said calmly and clicked another button on his dragon amulet, activating a mechanism within the folds of metal and steel that was being defeated by the three rebels.  
  
"Aw, c'mon . . ." Tyson groaned as he reloaded his twin pistols and watched sheaths of titanium alloy encase the nearly destroyed war machine. Wesley rolled out of the net that was fired at him and lay crouched on one knee, his single revolver aimed and his face filled with determination. "I have three shots left. Try to make it open its shoulders again." He hissed and Kai rolled his eyes from behind the SEA leader's back. Kai loaded a deep penetration bullet into his sniper rifle and took careful aim at the immense shoulder of the titanic weapon. His finger squeezed on the trigger and the bullet flew out of the muzzle but merely glanced over the new armor plating of the machine. He closed his eyes in meditation, trying to come up with a new plan, and slid back behind his little crate. Tyson took a quick glance at his former leader and shook his head before firing all that was left of his ammunition, also achieving no effect whatsoever. "No. . ." He mumbled and rolled out of the way of the giant's foot, barely escaping a quick transformation into a pancake. Wesley hastily took one more shot at the towering machine and scurried towards the crate that Kai was hiding behind. "Man, God could really give us some help right now." Wesley commented and wiped some sweat off his forehead. Kai gave a derisive snort and reloaded his rifle. "As long as there's no evidence of a higher empirical order, I'm not subscribing to it." Kai replied and slowly brought his finger on the trigger of his rifle, narrowing his eyes as he aimed for his unusual target. In a split second, a lamp above the anti-Frame weapon was snapped off from its cable, plummeting toward its designated victim. "Nice shot." Wesley said and grabbed Kai by the collar, signaling to Tyson and heading for the exit as the anti-Frame armament swayed back and forth from the weight of the lamp that fell on its head (area).  
  
"Now." Blaze said and Ice fired an entire round of bullets at the gate of the exit, causing the door to fall back into place and effectively locking the rebels' in. "Practice makes perfect." She said happily as she watched the trio panic under them. Her twin brother rolled his eyes from behind his facemask and nudged his sister in the ribs. "Three bullets were off target." Blaze taunted and she punched him on the shoulder, glaring at him.  
  
A net encased both Tyson and Kai in one shot as the anti-Frame jogged over to them once more. "Oh hell, hell, hell!" Wesley shouted as he ran away from the relentless fire that stemmed from the shoulders of the gigantic machine. "Oh HELL" He shouted as a few bullets suddenly tore through his right leg like a hot knife through butter and he collapsed, clutching his bleeding wound. "Hell, hell, hell, tarantadong mech! Pag namatay ako, babalik ako para I-disturbo ang mga buhay ninyo!" Wesley cursed in his native language, Filipino, (His curse comes out as something my classmate yelled at me) and raised his arms above his head as the machine edged closer and closer to him. Fortunately enough, part of the ceiling suddenly collapsed and crushed the right shoulder of the anti- Frame. "Anong klase ng demonyo?!?" He cursed instinctively and rolled out of the way of the somewhat enraged machine, getting back up to one knee and reaching for his revolver.  
  
Blaze and Ice's swords were already out as they stared at the gaping hole in the ceiling, which was letting in the raging storm from outside. A lone figure jumped down from the opening and pulled out a silver blade from what was more or less the exact uniform that Blaze and Ice were wearing. "That's another Machina uniform! How'd that person get that?" (A/N: This has something to do with the prologue I'm working on. ^_^) Ice shouted and she jumped onto the railing of the arena and glided down onto the main area.  
  
The silver blade of the single attacker cut through the left shoulder of the damaged machine, causing oil and sparks to fly through the rain-soaked training ground. The white and silver armored soldier landed deftly on both legs and one unused hand, spinning around. Kai pushed off the net from his head and watched in awe as the white soldier spun the gleaming sword in both hands and jumped up above the behemoth. The blade came down in a lethal arc, slicing past the circuits and gears of the neck of the lizard-like machine and down towards the waist of the weapon. It gave a mechanical groan as it swayed back and forth before giving one almighty creak and falling apart into two separate pieces of useless junk. Tyson and Kai quickly freed themselves from the rest of the net and scooped up the injured SEA leader, heading towards the unknown savior. "Thanks, man!" Tyson shouted in honest gratitude as the soldier turned around and deftly tossed a small package to them. "Here is the program. Hurry up escape through the trash chute over there." A familiar male voice responded and pointed toward a small hole in the side of the room. Water-soaked and sweaty, the two rebels carrying their leader ran over to the hole just as Blaze and Ice came leaping down on the still unidentified soldier. He raised his silver blade to block a blow from Ice's own katana and ducked in one fluid motion as Blaze's came swooping down on his head. Spinning around to cut off Blaze's legs, which jumped up instinctively, he came around in a full circle and jumped up with tremendous force. His blade came up like an uppercut, knocking Ice backward. The twin assassins below him immediately jumped up as well but behind the white facemask that so hid his identity, he smirked at them and folded his legs so that his blade would be in directly under him. Gravity pulled him down and his blade slammed into both Ice and Blaze's, removing their defenses for but a fleeting moment. Quickly taking advantage, he released his folded legs and delivered simultaneous kicks to the stomachs of the twins, sending them flying across the training grounds. Folding his blade back into its sheath, the soldier jumped back up into the air, swung on a lamp like an acrobat and sent him through the gaping hole in the roof. (A/N: I want someone to write more action too!)  
  
Blaze got to his feet, clutching his stomach that covered a few broken ribs, and looked up at the ceiling in frustration. He removed his helmet and ran a hand through his sweaty hair before getting up to his feet. "Damn!" Blaze's mouth contorted into a frown and he kicked a piece of debris out of rage. Ice walked over to him, her helmet removed as well, and she scratched the back of her neck. "We need to tell Elmdor to increase our pay for this job." She commented as she stared at the destruction around her that was mostly the work of that lone warrior.  
  
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Exciting, eh? A third party, another government weapon and the return of the two most proficient mercenaries in the future world! By the way, that prologue I'm planning is concentrated around the earlier parts of the war where the Bladebreakers are still just civilians. 


	3. Exist to Inspire

Connection Terminated: Vertigo  
  
Hey, watching all these war movies and replaying Metal Gear Solid 2's given me a new drive to upload this! Thank all the hapless Russian soldiers I've killed with my M4!  
  
Exist to Inspire  
  
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13:02, Somewhere in Russia  
  
A blade swung over the caramel brown hair of Sarah as she sparred against the equally skilled soldier, Drake. Blurred, she spun to the side, evading another quick one-handed blow from her adversary, and lashed out with the nunchakus in her hand. Drake's blade came up, blocking, spinning and nearly slicing her legs off if it weren't for a well-timed jump.  
  
A few meters away, leaning against a pole, Ivan Elmdor, long arms folded across his the chest area of his black shirt, stared at the ground. Blaze and Ice, standing but a short distance from him, shifted uncomfortably as they remembered their quick defeat at the hands of the unknown assailant.  
  
"You two lost. Plain and simple."  
  
Ivan said quietly, raising one hand to his forehead for some support. He turned his steely glare at them and narrowed his eyes. "Two of the world's most proficient mercenaries are defeated by one, I repeat, one unknown soldier." He continued in barely a whisper but still enough to emote his true anger and irritation. He removed his hand and stared eye-to- eye with his hired assassins. "Explain." He ordered in a sharp tone of voice and Blaze's eye twitched, seeing as he was unused to being interrogated for failure. "We underestimated his skill." Ice said simply, raising one hand slightly to signal her somewhat unrestrained brother to hold his frustration in. Ivan let loose a sigh reminiscent of a man about to give his final orders to kill insubordinate fools. "Oh well. I cannot blame you two for underestimating that man." Ivan said a bit louder, his familiar smile returning to his face. Blaze coughed slightly, to show his surprise, and scratched the back of his head. "Excuse me?" He asked, as though Ivan was not made clear. Ice nodded in agreement, apparently confused as well. Ivan raised an eyebrow and clicked a button on his watch. A hologram immediately played out from the watch, showing a picture of three people. He clicked another button and zoomed in on the youngest soldier, a boy no younger than 18. "This was washed out of history so do not tell anyone else about the information you are about to hear." Ivan said seriously, eliciting not even a twitch from the now stone-cold twins. He coughed and began his explanation. "2 years ago, a special team of snipers was trained in Nest, one of two government space stations now defunct. One of them betrayed his two comrades to fight for the rebel "cause" . . ." Ivan started, his mouth curving into something signifying great distaste or displeasure. "Anyway, before this event, we designed three suits for each of the snipers. Two of them are the ones you took off last night for your more comfortable sleeveless shirts and pants." Ivan said, his voice tinged with a small bit of sarcasm as he eyed the clothes of the two mercenaries. Ice raised her eyebrow and Ivan smiled before continuing. "Blaze wore the suit of the traitor Blind Eagle. It was unused he gave up ownership once he left the government." Ivan explained and the red Machina armor began overlapping the clothes of Blind Eagle. He pressed another button and the hologram cycled the figures, focusing on the female sniper who looked like she was the one year senior of the first soldier. "Ice, your new armor is the one Blood Eagle was supposed to inherit. Her own former comrade gunned her down before that though . . ." He trailed off, his lips curling up once more. Ivan then pressed a button that rotated the picture once more to show the last, most emotionless, empty-looking one yet. The eldest, around 21 most likely, with sleek white hair that fell through the back of his head to his shoulders and a demeanor of a glacier stared back at them from his floating existence. "Blank Eagle. He was the last blood relative of Drake . . . Forced Blind off a cliff, using his superior white armor to do so." Ivan said and Blaze's muscles presently tightened in response. "The Machina armor you don't have yet." Ice cut in ahead of her elder brother and Ivan nodded, giving a sigh of regret. He removed the form of Blank Eagle and concentrated on the armor. He opened his mouth to speak but Blaze smirked smugly and gave his interruption. "Since Drake is Russian and his brother is too, he probably left the armor somewhere around and you want us to hunt down the Russian who picked it up and is using it as a weapon against you." Blaze said quickly and Ivan smiled back.  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"Mission accepted. Ice and I will proceed to the mech terminal here."  
  
"All right then. By the way, Sarah, I have something for you to do . . ."  
  
22: 45, Indonesian Government Control Center, Somewhere near the mainland  
  
A clenched fist jammed an elongated explosive into the forest green back of one of the government's first mass produced Frames, the Locusts, which he thought somehow resembled gigantic Vire in their design. Ray wiped some sweat off his forehead, rubbing the yin yang cloth that covered his forehead, and ran out of the hangar stealthily. Equipped with the same suit Tyson had wore to rescue Mariah, he pressed a button on his wrist and simultaneously detonated all the Locust Frames as it would be impossible for him to trigger the bombs from a farther distance. An alarm immediately sounded out through the entire compound and Ray took a quick glance into the inferno that once housed the relatively small Locusts and sprinted down the hall. "I got the Frames." Ray mumbled into the mouthpiece of his suit and a small whistle was his response. "Smooth work, man! But we see one A- class Frame hovering beside the deck of the base. You might have some company." Max's cheery voice replied and an ethereal green visor covered Ray's eyes, showing the fuzzy layout of the base and the outline of the Frame hovering beside it. "Eh, apparently the SEA base has no precise thermal scanning so we can't get the accurate location of whoever was dropped off here." Max finished and closed his end of the line, leaving Ray in a base swarming with alarmed government soldiers. Ray shook his head and rushed through the corridor, leaving behind the smoking Locust hangar.  
  
Ray pressed his back against the wall, holding a submachine gun he picked up from a dead guard, and peered past the corner of the metal wall. "Damn!" He mumbled and clicked another button on the side of his headset and contacted Mariah, who was supposed to have destroyed the other Locust hangar on the base. "Ray?" Mariah replied and Ray glanced around furtively before continuing the conversation. "Get the boat ready, I'm going to blast my way out of here." Ray said quietly while his fingers tapped the reserve explosives attached to his waist. Mariah sighed and he heard her get up from a sitting position. "Be careful, all right?" She replied and Ray rolled his eyes before smiling, even though she couldn't see him. "Yeah, I will." He finished and pressed down on the button beside his ear again before grabbing two handfuls of the high power explosives at his side and jogging over to the relatively thick wall that separated him from the sea. Ray jammed the stick-shaped devices into the wall like he did to the Frames and rolled over to the edge of the wall, barely hiding himself from the troop of completely blue armor-covered guards. He pressed down on the activation trigger and shielded his eyes from the flash of light as the explosives detonated outwards, which effectively sent a few tons of scrap metal flying into the ocean. "Game's up." He murmured as frantic government soldiers ran over to the site of the explosion and immediately opened fire on the Chinese rebel. Running away from the bullets that nipped at his heels like wild dogs, Ray lunged forward and rolled out of the gaping hole in the corridor. He spun around in midair, twisting his body to face the soldiers, who were peering down and firing away with their custom built rifles, and returned a volley of ammunition from his "borrowed" submachine gun. Three guards let out a scream of pain and terror as they fell over the edge and plummeted downwards. Ray spun in the air again as a speedboat, driven by Mariah and a few other Central China rebels, rounded a corner and appeared under him, ready to catch their falling comrade. Ray landed deftly on two feet as his fellow rebels simultaneously raised their firearms to the soldiers above and let loose with a barrage of ammunition.  
  
"Nice timing!" Ray shouted over the shooting to Mariah, who smirked at him before slinging the twin submachine guns she had received from the SEA armory off her waist and joining their allies in annihilating the government troops. He shook his head and grabbed the controls of the ship just as Max's panicked voice came online. "Ray! We have a slight problem concerning the Frame . . ." He trailed off just as Ray noticed a sky blue Frame fly over the horizon and fire a silver cable from its chest down to the water in behind him. The cockpit hatch flew open just as two gigantic unarmed government carriers appeared above it and opened their containment units, releasing hordes of small black insectoid creatures into the air.  
  
"Hey! Don't you think we figured out your little scheme already?" A female voice said with a tinge of arrogance as she jumped onto the cable and skated down to the rebels, flaunting a powerful-looking rifle. Ray swerved the speedboat in a complete 180-degree turn, dropping the controls and opening fire at the government agent. "Sarah!" A voice exclaimed from the crowd as the soldier realized who the assailant was, but a stream of bullets down the soldier's throat silenced any more exclamations. Sarah, her mouth folded into a thin line of concentration, crouched and grabbed the cable with one gloved hand, spinning herself under and over the cable just as ammunition whizzed overhead. She kicked off from the silver cable and somersaulted over to a rocky outcropping jutting out from the churning waters, returning fire to the rebel battalion. "Maybe you should pay more attention to the other soldiers! Vire, attack now!" She shouted and the rebel fighters turned their attention to the hovering things in the air, which suddenly sprouted wings from their backs and raced down the sky to the relatively small speedboat. "Mariah! Get down!" Ray shouted and pushed the pink-haired rebel down as a Vire swooped down from the air and nearly cut off her head with sickle-like finger blades.  
  
"They're too fast! We can't shoot 'em down!" "Quick! There's another one over there!"  
  
It made a sharp turn in the air and hovered a few meters away from the two rebels, emitting a mechanical laugh. "You're the girl I shot a few months ago. Pleasant to see you still alive." The eerie voice of the Vire leader Moritsune stated calmly just as his fellow Vire appeared behind him, all their red eyes flashing in the darkness of the night. Sarah groaned and shot down another rebel, signaling the Vire to execute a rehearsed maneuver with her other hand. "Go!" She shouted before ducking behind a rock as bullets ricocheted off her protection. The Vire emitted another mechanical whir, folding their mantis-like wings into their backs and diving into the deep blue sea. The attention of the rebels was now split two ways, one half blasting away at the irritatingly skilled government agent, whose lone rifle was doing more damage than a dozen of theirs combined, and the other half helplessly spending ammunition into impossibly untouchable monsters that were capable of leaping out of the water, over the speedboat, to grab one rebel and drag the unfortunate soul back down with it. Sarah gave another signal, causing the Vire to come shooting out of the sea and hover in the air, before standing up and pointing her rifle at the five remaining rebels. "You wish you died all those months ago. You just prolonged the inevitable for but a little while." Sarah, her eyes trained on Ray, said coldly and he replied with a defiant look on his face, simultaneously edging to the side to cover Mariah from the line of fire. "Go on then, get over with it." He replied bravely, his eyes filled with courage and anger at the same time. Sarah shook her head and took her aim just as a silver blade came flying through the air and slashing through at least three of her nearly invincible Vire. Sarah's gaze was diverted to the scene where the lone soldier wearing Blank Eagle's old uniform was practically jumping off water to cut through her surprised units like scissors through paper. Taking the distraction as an advantage, Ray reached for the speedboat's controls and started up the engine, praying that it wasn't blown up during the firefight. Fortunately, it was still functional and he zoomed away from the fight scene, taking one glance at the enigmatic man known as Cypher.  
  
Sarah muttered a quick curse before switching her rifle to sniping mode and loading it with a tracer/ hacking device. She rose up the weapon to her eye and squeezed the trigger, latching the tiny and insignificant-looking gadget onto the speedboat as Cypher dueled away with the last remaining Vire, Moritsune. The Vire landed a powerful kick against the armored soldier's chest, sending him into the rock wall of the plateau the base was built on. Moritsune swooped over to his leader, glancing over his shoulder as the skilled fighter known as Cypher (A/N: Hey, a rhyme!) popped out from the water, running across the surface to reach his adversary. "Miss Sarah, I believe it would be wise to evacuate." Moritsune stated calmly but she brushed him off, loading an armor-piercing bullet into her rifle and placing her rifle's crosshair right over the back of Ray's head. "Hold him off for a second. I'm not going to lose after coming so far . . ." Sarah mumbled quietly as her finger closed into the trigger, firing a bullet right Ray's head when what she would believe to be impossible happened right before her eyes. Another bullet intercepted hers in midair, ending her hopes of killing a critical part of the rebel movement. Her eyes moved upward to the origin of the bullet and she nearly fell off her little island, catching a glimpse of a brown-haired boy with a red cloth wrapped around his forehead. Sarah's hand compulsively grabbed her own forehead as an enormous migraine attacked her, leaving Moritsune to slide his arms under her and carry her up to her Frame.  
  
Cypher landed beside the waiting boy, who had the sniper rifle resting on his back, and folded his katana back into its place. Cypher clicked a button on the side of his helmet and removed it, revealing two bright orange spikes of hair. "You look like you saw a ghost." Cypher asked, taking note of the distracted expression on his comrade's face. The boy shook off the feeling and walked over to the concealed hovercraft that was waiting for them. "Sorry. I remembered someone I left behind a long time ago." The boy said quietly before opening the door to the hovercraft and entering the somewhat modern transport machine.  
  
"I thought you left behind that life already, Aquila."  
  
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	4. One Hit

Connection Terminated: Vertigo  
  
One Hit  
  
101010101010101011001011  
  
23: 31, SEA rebel base, somewhere in the middle of the sea  
  
Wesley's hand grabbed Kai by the throat, slamming his back to the wall. "You son of a bitch! You compromised the security of my base with your reckless order to attack the new Frame hangars!" He yelled angrily before delivering a quick punch across Kai's face. "Hey, Wes! Cool it!" A few other SEA rebels approached their leader and pulled him away from Kai, who presently rubbed his throat while his lip curled into an angry slit. "You know what? A lot more troops of mine could have been saved if you just sent reinforcements!" He shouted back and Wesley once again struggled against his comrades to rip Kai apart. "YOUR troops! I don't give a damn where you send those soldiers of yours!" Wesley retorted and Kai's hand balled into fists, his teeth gritted. He shook his head and calmly walked away from the infuriated SEA branch leader. "My soldier's priority is A.L.E.C, not your troops! Remember that, Hiwatari!" Wesley shouted one last time before removing the grasp of his fellow SEA rebels and walking off to the control room of A.L.E.C  
  
23:31, Somewhere in Russia  
  
Inside the dimly lit reconnaissance room of the government's main base, Ivan paced the room as the world's best and most highly paid team of trackers struggled to acquire a lock on the seemingly intercepted trace they had placed aboard the rebel vehicle. "Anything yet?" He asked calmly and the masked leader of the team turned around to face his employer. "No sir. There seems to be a problem with the sending of information." The tracker said quietly and pointed to the screen, where the cursor that should be hovering over a specific location was moving erratically across a relatively wide area. Ivan shook his head and barked a quick order. "Divert 70% of all power to the recon station!" He shouted just as Jex walked in to the room, twiddling a cellular phone in his fingers. "Sir, Ice and Blaze have a lead on the armor." Jex said calmly while observing the reconnaissance team work feverishly at the computers. Ivan whirled around, his jet-black cloak swirling around him, as Jex tossed the cellphone to him. He caught it with one outstretched hand and quickly placed up to his ear.  
  
00:03, A.L.E.C Control Center, Virtual World  
  
Trygator deftly manipulated the paper-thin ethereal screen that controlled the A.L.E.C setup, sliding icons here and there with her left hand while the right one spun holographic dials around. Her fingers tapped in a rhythmic sequence into a glowing panel, causing the white haloes surrounding the incomplete body of A.L.E.C to slowly grind to a quiet stop. A few dozen more windows popped up on the display and she accessed each one simultaneously, pressing them together to form one big report on the current figures on A.L.E.C. Trygator's eyes narrowed as she scanned the report, noticing an abnormality in the energy distribution level. She looked up suspiciously at the body of Alec, as the program was nicknamed, and stared at the boyish features of the yet to be finished project. "Weird . . . Hey, Dragoon! Come over here and check this out!" Trygator yelled to the blue-haired bitbeast, who was typing away a code into a terminal similar to hers. Dragoon looked up from his work and jogged over to her display, expressing the same look of doubt on his face. He scratched his head and separated the energy distribution report from the others. Trygator sighed and opened up a dialogue window with Emily as Dragoon began fixing the problem. "Emily, there seems to be a slight fluctuation in the energy distribution levels of Alec. What do you think happened?" Trygator asked as Dragoon, evidently perplexed by the problem, struggled to find a solution to the glitch. Emily, who was apparently nodding off to sleep in front of her computer, shook off her exhaustion and began typing away on her keyboard. Her left eyebrow was raised too as she skeptically observed the report and began hacking away on the keyboard again. "I don't know. Alec seems to be acting independently . . ." The American replied nervously and keyed in a system override function that could only be accessed from the real world. "This is strange . . . I already activated a system freeze command . . . Anyway, it's just a small bug in the program. Alec will be ready for the testing at one o clock."  
  
00:54, Somewhere in Russia  
  
"Damn it! Can't you people get the trace working?" Ivan shouted angrily, pounding the wall with his fist. The leader, his eyes narrowed under the goggles, stared feverishly at the giant monitors while punching in code after code of access lines. The reconnaissance tracker slammed his fist into the desk, rattling the ice-cold coffee mugs on it, before rapidly keying in an extremely complex command to more or less estimate the average location of the rebel base. After a few more seconds of intense keypunching, the team leader threw up his arms and shook his head in defeat. "The trace is dead. We'll try the hacking system." He said calmly and barked some orders in German to his fellow trackers. They nodded, mumbling something in the same language, before entering a stream of commands into the computer. Hundreds of bright green lines appeared on the monitor, filling it up by the second as 24 fingers crunched keyboards.  
  
01:02, A.L.E.C Control Center, SEA rebel base, somewhere in the middle of the sea  
  
"Look who showed up." Wesley said coldly as Kai entered the makeshift laboratory where a few dozen of the more important people in the base had converged to view the test run of Alec. Kai ignored him and walked over to Mariah, shoving away her shoulder as he positioned himself to watch the start up process. "Hey! Can't you be a bit more considerate?" She complained and Kai smiled thinly in reply while Emily tapped in the sequence to commence the trials. "We're starting."  
  
Driger whistled at the sight of the white haloes turn an iridescent green, grinding to a slow but complete stop. "Everything's okay on this side of the pillar, Ray." Driger sounded off, pressing down on the virtual earpiece on his head. He looked up at the haloes, disappearing into little particles, as Alec was lowered to the ground.  
  
Ray listened intently to his bitbeast and gave the thumbs up to Raul, who presently pressed down on a red activation trigger. "The test run is now officially underway."  
  
Alec's eyes shot open, revealing light brown irises, as he slowly rose to his feet. Alec had a small build, with features that were reminiscent of a normal twelve-year old boy, with the exception of the completely silver hair he had sliding down the back of his head. He turned to the relatively skeptical and frightened Driger and a small innocent smile crossed Alec's face. "Unless I am mistaken, you are Driger, correct?" A voice that betrayed his appearance with its mature tone asked politely and Driger nodded quickly. "How did you know?" The white tiger bitbeast asked, not bothering to hide his amazement and the super-powerful program smiled again.  
  
"By matching your energy levels, composition and physiology with that of information in my current database and by scanning the aura you emit even in this virtual world. All facts would point to the conclusion that you are the white tiger bitbeast known as Driger."  
  
Driger gave a low whistle and scratched his head before walking over to another one of those ethereal panels to start up the combat tests. His finger slid an access code onto the main program, causing a narrow semi- transparent corridor to enclose Alec in a space with a dozen captured government combat programs.  
  
"What the hell is that? Shoot it down!" Alec's eyes flashed a fiery red, raising a small hand to the programs that had opened fire on it. The bullets immediately skidded off an unseen wall, peppering the wall behind Alec with smoking holes. The government troops huddled together, piling their massive rifles on top of each other as they formed a concentrated line of fire at the seemingly omnipotent Alec. Alec's hand crushed into a fist and somehow imploded all of the government program's weaponry.  
  
Driger took a step back, stunned by the ruthless display of force that such a small and insignificant-looking thing could do. Or maybe it was because of the splitting headache that was slowly ripping apart his self, forcing him to fluctuate between his regular white tiger form and his humanoid figure. Waves of energy were pulsating from Alec, slamming into Driger with the force of an earthquake that would register a 10 on the Richter scale.  
  
Alec took a few steps forward, dismissing the grenades being thrown at him with a casual wave of his left hand. His lips were glued together in a cold thin line as he approached the first, somewhat terrified program, seeing as there was no other word to describe the sudden drop in the program's moral. His right hand clutched the throat of the unfortunate government soldier and crushed it, warping the data streams that appeared into a jet-black submachine gun. A crazed flash passed through Alec's eyes once more as virtual ammunition flew out from the gun, ripping through second program that was foolish enough not to get out of the way  
  
Ray collapsed onto the floor, dropping from his seat as a pulsating pain seared through his skull. "Ray!" Mariah exclaimed worriedly and rushed over to his convulsing body, being pushed away by Emily, who immediately checked up on the fallen comrade. A look of genuine worry appeared on Emily's face as she bit her lip and stared meaningfully at a few Central China rebels. "Get me some medical equipment from Osiris now! He's slipping into a coma!" She yelled as Mariah was practically sobbing on Ray's chest. Mariah looked up at Wesley, who was blandly staring at the screen showing Alec's battle. "Do something! You can't let him die!" She pleaded and Wesley turned around, a cold frown plastered on his face. "Our priority is A.L.E.C. I'm sorry." He said, trying his best to conceal his emotion.  
  
Like his master on the physical plane, Driger's form was fading away to nothing as the pulses that were coming from Alec tore his existence apart little by little. Dragoon materialized beside Driger, kneeling over to check the bitbeast when a burning sensation blasted every fiber in both his physical and digital bodies. "Something's happening . . . Activate the system override . . ." He croaked before clutching his throat and slumping beside the already unconscious white tiger bitbeast.  
  
"Hey, Tyson!" Max said in surprise, getting up from checking out the now comatose Ray to watch Tyson utter a cry before falling to his knees and collapsing into shudders on the floor. Emily stood up and stared at the screen, where Dragoon and Driger were dissipating, losing the fight against whatever was attacking them like their masters in the real world. Her eyes narrowed and she watched Alec carry up another hapless government victim with that same demented look before slicing off the program's head.  
  
"System override now!"  
  
Alec threw away the drained figure he had just beheaded callously and raised up his hand toward the last three soldiers that were hiding in the corner of the corridor. The three suddenly were covered in a bright light as Alec's now blood red eyes narrowed in concentration. A gigantic explosion rocked the entire control center as the three programs' data was transposed into streams of hyper-unstable codes, shattering the corridor into tiny smithereens. Alec turned to the two weakened bitbeasts that lay unconscious on the floor, bending over to pick up the submachine gun it had crafted from the data of one of its victims when a shock ran through his system and promptly knocked him out.  
  
1:31, Somewhere in Russia  
  
The German tracker shouted a curse in his native language as the hacking system registered an overwhelming wave of pure energy before suffering from a system overload and exploding in the face of the tracker team. Ivan, watching everything with apprehension clicked a button at his hip before shouting an order to clean up the mess and set up the secondary reconnaissance room for future use. "I want all Locust Frames and the anti- Frame weapons in the Indonesian, Philippine and Malaysian command centers ready for battle in less than 4 hours!" He shouted and stormed out of the room with a determined frown on his face as he walked over to the secondary recon office. "Whatever caused that massive energy spike, it will be mine."  
  
1:40, Infirmary wing, SEA rebel base, somewhere in the middle of the sea  
  
Tyson and Ray had slipped into comas and so had their bitbeasts, who had exited the virtual dimension and were residing in their unused beyblades once more in a near death state. Kai leaned against the doorway to their room, thoughts about the freak accident running through his head. He muttered a curse under his breath, frustrated for not coming up a logical explanation, and walked over to a sleeping Mariah, who had stuck beside the one she loved even though Kai himself had suggested otherwise. Kai shook his head and carried her up to the unused bed, covering her with a blanket before staring at her with a worried expression. "I've lost too many soldiers to this base, you're too valuable to lose right now." He muttered before walking out of the room and heading to his quarters for some well-deserved shuteye. "Enjoy your sleep, Mariah. It might be the most we'll be getting for a while."  
  
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	5. All Cards in His Hand

Connection Terminated: Vertigo  
  
All Cards in his Hand  
  
1010101010101010100101110100100101010110010  
  
5:23, Inside Zeus, Above China  
  
Ivan, clothed in a tight-fitting black military uniform, stared out through the large-paned window of his gigantic airship, as his army proceeded to their destination. He was hell bent on getting revenge on the rebels and now they had a computer program capable of such a massive energy spike. He kills and he gets a prize too. God, he was enjoying this game right now. "I don't even know why I hired those twins to help me. I'm perfectly capable of mass destruction all by myself." Ivan thought aloud as Jex walked up to him, a sliding door closing behind the fringes of his dark green cloak with a metallic thud. Ivan whirled around haughtily, his imperial and imposing figure, which had grown a little, standing beside Jex's slightly smaller form. He raised an eyebrow, silently asking Jex "What the hell are you doing here?" Jex coughed slightly and reached into his pocket for something, fiddling around with its insides before extracting a notepad. "Ice and Blaze have a lead on the location of Cypher." The blonde soldier said calmly and recited a few dozen coordinates and possible sources of weaponry and information for the enigmatic mercenary, coughing again, before looking up at his employer. Ivan smiled thinly and pulled out his shiny black pistol from its holster at his hip. "After this mission, send half of the Vire troops to kill those two. I will have no further need for them." Ivan said, his lips folding into a cunning grin. After all, he had all the power in his grasp now. What use did he have for two insignificant little assassins?  
  
5:23, Kiev, Ukraine  
  
Dressed in the same armor they used to battle Cypher, Ice and Blaze sloshed through the cold snow of the Ukrainian plains as they searched for the supposed safe house of whomever they were hunting down. Blaze, his helmet tucked underneath his arm, scanned the surroundings of the silent snowfields carefully, searching for any sign of the building Cypher was supposed to be hiding in. His mouth twisted into an angry frown, visibly frustrated by their mission. "We travel so many miles from Russia after some idiot tells us the hideout is in Ukraine and we get THIS?" Blaze roared heatedly, shaking the snow off the tips of the trees in the area. His hand moved faster than the blink of an eye, grabbing the hilt of the blade the rested at his back and slashing through a nearby shrub as to vent his frustration. Ice shook her head and turned around to face her furious elder brother, who was now taking deep breaths to calm himself down. "Save it. I think I see something moving over there." She said in a dry tone, holding out a hand to stop her brother.  
  
Perched on top of an icy cliff, another man, clothed entirely in heat- insulating black material except for the slit that allowed his eyes to observe the actions of the two mercenaries below him, watched intently as his fingers caressed the unique weapons he held at his side for self- defense. Throwing knives the size of a human hand with two blades coming from either side of the hilt were positioned in groups of three at his waist, ready to come flying out like shurikens at the most unsuspecting of prey. The man reached for a mobile phone inside the pocket on his thigh and pressed a speed-dial button, opening a communications line with his superior inside their safe house. "This is Black Eagle. I have the targets in range. Shall I attack or wait for back up?"  
  
Ice's hand reached for the Famas gun at her hip and lashed back out, firing at the location of the unidentified observer. The repeating pistol's bullets peppered the snow of the cliff, spraying the watcher with cold white powder as he evaded the attack with a well-practiced back flip. Blaze's frown immediately curved back into a blood-thirsty grin as he sprinted across the snow-covered ground, dashing through the trees that were dotted here and there as he set his sights for the unknown man above him. "Maybe that kid was right after all." Blaze said excitedly as he raised his blade to block a throwing knife that flew at his face, ducking right after that to avoid another one that came for his stomach. Ice latched the Famas back onto its spot on her hip and removed her own silver katana from its sheath before rushing straight at the now-attacking man. "Hey you! Identify yourself and surrender or else!" Ice shouted as she crouched, a throwing knife slicing through the air above her, and rolled to avoid another batch of the lethal blades the embedded themselves into the snow behind her. The man jumped into the air, twirling two of his weapons in his hands as he prepared to fire them at the twins once more. "I am Black Eagle of the non-rebel army aligned Artemis militant organization! Stand down at once!" The man shouted before throwing his deadly knives down at the two mercenaries with the average speed of a bullet.  
  
6:24, Infirmary Wing, SEA rebel base, somewhere in the middle of sea  
  
A sweat-covered Max promptly shook Mariah awake and she turned over in the white cot of the Infirmary wing as explosions and gunfire sounded across the base. "Huh? What's happening? Where's Ray?" She asked dazedly, noticing the submachine gun slung across Max's chest as he glanced around nervously. "Uh, well, um . . ." He said in a panicky tone as a soldier from the other end of the corridor shouted before being blown away by a grenade. "They tracked the energy wave given out by Alec and now they are swamping us with soldiers, Vire, Frames, anti-Frames and their diabolically good agents. Ray's inside Osiris along with Tyson as Kenny is trying to make it go again. Kai and Emily are out there in the firefight. Well, I'm here to get you out of this infirmary and at least attempt to make it all the way to Osiris, which is HALFWAY across the base, WITHOUT DYING! Cut me some slack, I only had 4 hours of sleep today." Max said rapidly before tossing Mariah a semi-bulletproof jacket and a rifle. Mariah stared at him in slight shock before rubbing her eyes and getting up from the bed. She holstered her rifle and gestured for Max to follow her out of the room. "C'mon, we have half of the base to get through!" Mariah uttered hastily before glancing around the corridor to see if any government soldiers were still there. Max slapped his hand to his forehead before running after her. "Why the hell did I join this? Why?" Max asked himself and followed Mariah down the hallway.  
  
Soldiers made way for him as Ivan passed through the hall that ended in the sliding door, which so purposefully separated him from global domination of the entire Internet. They stomped on the floor once, before folding their rifles under their arms and saluting him. He dismissed the eggshell-white armored soldiers with a wave of his hand; he was far too focused on reaching the program that lay behind the door for that mere formality. Beside him was Moritsune, the Vire's 7-foot tall body casting a shadow on the mastermind behind this plot. His single red eye, located at the center of his completely black face, whirred mechanically as it sensed the vast power located behind the steel door. "Moritsune, is Hotsuma ready with his Vire?" Ivan Elmdor inquired in a dry tone as the young yet calculating boy aimed his pistol at the obstacle that lay before him. The oddly erect Vire, who should be a bit more slouched for a better and more efficient killing position, nodded briefly before extending the scythe-like blades that were hidden in his elongated fingers. "Yes, my lord. My subordinate has his troops ready for immediate action." Moritsune droned as a few dozen more Vire slowly and eerily appeared from the shadows that made up the corridor, their red eyes glowing in a bloodthirsty, vicious hunger. The soldiers all around them shivered as the Vire moved up to the front, gathering behind their leader. Ivan mouth twisted into a maniacal grin before firing a single shot into the wall, fruitlessly bouncing off it. He raised his unused left hand, snapping his fingers. The soldiers poured past him, entering the same, almost wall-like position their comrades used to combat Wesley earlier. "Get to work." Ivan muttered and armor-piercing bullets streamed out from the veritable fortress of rifles and into the door, turning it into a smoking pile of metal. Ivan raised up his other hand, dropped his pistol and a soldier tossed a heavy rifle to him. Return fire from the rebels almost immediately followed and the government soldiers huddled for safety in the adjacent corridors of the labyrinth called the SEA rebel base. Ivan smiled to himself before cocking his rifle. To him, this was only the beginning.  
  
A few minutes earlier, Emily had somehow found her way through the bloodstained hallways of the gigantic base and was inside the large chamber where they had Alec attached to the core power grid of the entire oilrig. It was theoretically impossible to remove Alec from the pillar-like structure known as the core without an access code from Raul, Wesley or one of his most trusted comrades, Joseph, who happened to be missing somewhere. On Raul's dying breath, she managed to learn he had destroyed his code to keep it safe from the government and gave her a fragment of it that would be able to more or less restrain Alec's full capabilities. If she figured out the all so complex code yet low-tech security system Raul had installed into the pillar. For all her life she had played with them yet, like so many others, never solved one. The most ingenious puzzle ever devised by man, the most unsolvable of riddles, the most eternal of problems that plague a person's mind, the evil of the... "Stupid Rubik's Cube!" She cried out before flipping the cube onto its side twisting another line back into place, completing the red side but leaving both the white and blue unfinished. Another twist and the blue fell into place, messing up both the green and yellow in its stead. Emily breathed out her frustration and diligently tried to rectify her mistake. Again, she finished the green and yellow, trying another tack to get the blue into place but slotted in a black piece into the white space. Emily gritted her teeth and stopped herself from smashing the cube into little pieces, her finger muscles tightening in agitation. "Argh!" She shouted angrily before practically ripping the puzzle apart, wringing it like a towel. A click echoed throughout the circular power room and every rebel's eyes fell on Emily, whose hands were grasping a completed Rubik's cube. She looked down at the cube that lay on her hands, staring at its completed glory like the Holy Grail. Unable to say anything out of shock, Emily merely slotted the cube back into its space, opening up a small break in the power grid pillar where she can put in the disc containing the fragment of data. Just at that moment, a bullet clanged against the reinforced steel wall of the chamber, shifting the rebels' disposition to one of fear and agitation. "Damn!" Emily said and frantically tried to jam the disc into the pillar, probably getting closer to snapping it in half rather than putting it in. She did after a while, and in one short second, the disc had transferred all the fragmented data into the computer's database. "Okay, I'm done. Alec's overall system output has dropped a few dozen percentages... And I've disabled most of its Internet capabilities... " Emily mumbled just as the disc popped out from the gigantic cylindrical pillar, simultaneously signaling the start of a bloodbath as ammunition pierced the steel gates of the spacious room. Hundreds of rebels located inside the chamber turned to face the ruins of the door, opening fire on it with submachine guns, rifles and cheap, antiquated pistols.  
  
"Go." Ivan whispered and like one black flood, the Vire poured past him in seamless, lightning fast movements that were barely noticeable even in the cramped space they were darting through. Vire were lethal killing machines without conscience and emotion integrated into their minds, the most efficient of mass murderers that walked on this earth. They swarmed through the gates of the doorway, black devils from the very depths of hell, diving into a bloody frenzy with abandon like dozens of starved wolves. The Vire descended into the mass of rebels, claws extended, slashing, ripping and gouging flesh and bone as it rained blood. "Emily! Here!" The orange-haired American looked up to see Max and Mariah rappel down a cable from the ceiling, sliding down to her. Max, who was first, hooked his legs around the silver cable and bent down, grabbing her by the shoulders and hoisting her up just as a Vire slashed apart a portion of her leg with a deft swipe of its elongated claws. She let out a scream of pain as she held on to the rope, almost getting finished off as the Vire pounced upwards to cut her throat. Max kicked the Vire in the stomach, sending it flying right at a shocked rebel. With inhuman speed, the Vire twisted its body in midair and pinned the rebel to the ground, slicing off the unfortunate person's throat. But the three former beybladers had no time to think of the other's misfortune as Mariah, acting like the cat she resembled, leaped upwards and landed inside the weirdly spacious ventilation shaft. She grabbed Max's hand, pulled him up, and then Mariah lifted Emily into the unlit shaft as fresh screams abound around them. "There are more of those Vire things! Let's get out of here!" Mariah yelled after a quick glance at the massacre happening below them.  
  
The rebels' only hope lay in the narrow corridors behind them, a sanctuary where it would be far easier to shoot down the Vire. But acting on a signal transmitted by Moritsune, Hotsuma's troops broke through the gates that were once thought to be a safe haven for the bloodied rebels. His portion of the Vire swarmed like massive cockroaches, shredding bodies into mutilated corpses with their claws. It was like an entire school of piranha ravaging their hapless victims, spilling warm blood everywhere. Once Hotsuma's troops entered the one-sided butchering, it was over. Within seconds, every rebel that wasn't able to escape (Although the ones that did were killed by the hungry Vire that waited outside) was dead. No exceptions were made as torn, ragged corpses were kicked aside by the entering soldiers and Ivan stared at his blood-covered Vire. Moritsune's entire face was splashed in the same color of his lone eye as the Vire crushed the lifeless bodies of their victims with his powerful, frog-like legs as he walked over to his master in the same drunken way every one of the Vire did. Ivan smiled at his emotionless masterpiece and walked over to the blood-soaked pillar, twiddling the data chip he had "received" from the now deceased Joseph, Wesley's aide, in his hands.  
  
"And so, I have won."  
  
"Max! Hurry up!" Kai shouted from the ramp of the rising Osiris as the blonde American tossed Emily up to a waiting rebel, who guided her to the clinic area of the huge airship for some medical attention. "Wait! I've gotta activate the hangar gate!" Max yelled back, raising his voice to be heard over the roar of Osiris' powerful turbojets that were accelerating the rise of the airship. Kai cursed under his breath and slid a finger across his throat in warning just as finger-blades of a Vire burst through the door of the hangar. Max jammed a glowing red button on the side, only to find it stuck. "Hurry up!" Kai shouted once more as Osiris slowly but surely flew upwards, the top tail fins grazing the still closed roof before stabbing through. More Vire claws punched through the door, slicing downwards and making a gaping entrance for their death-dealing flood attacks. Max glanced around him as a Vire's head peered through the hole, surveying the scene before latching one red eye on the frantic American. Max shouted an expletive before punching in the hangar gate button, practically breaking the accursed thing, as the Vire made a warning "Yip Yip Yip!" to its comrades, signaling them to attack the unarmed rebel. The Vire broke through like a bursting dam, their claws glinting ferociously in the dim light of the rebel hangar as Max scrambled for the already far too high Osiris ramp. "Kai! I won't reach it!" Max shouted just as Mariah pushed aside the visibly agitated Bladebreaker, clutching a rope in her hands. The pink-haired Chinese girl flashed her fangs to the now confused rebel branch leader and tied the rope tightly around a protrusion on the side of Osiris while the immense hangar gates above them creaked open once more, letting light flood into the expansive room. Max, a few meters from being chopped into pieces, ran even faster as he hoped to just barely catch the edge of the ramp with a desperation jump. "Some help would be appreciated right NOW!" Max screamed in pure panic as the Vire, running wildly like a pack of ravenous dogs, revealed a new weapon, firing spike- like projectiles from their shoulders at high speeds that streaked past their intended target, Max, embedding themselves into the hull of Osiris. "Hiwatari, this is how you do it." Mariah said, turning to face her leader before walking backwards and sprinting across the ramp; hands clasped onto the rope she brought with her. "You psychopathic bitch! What the hell are you doing?" Kai shouted in alarm as one of his most skilled and fiercely brave soldiers flung herself under the ramp and towards Max. Mariah merely grinned in reply and scooped up the terrified Max, just as a Vire slashed the air where he was standing a few moments earlier. "You are one dangerous person!" Max commented as they flew across the air, swinging back onto the ramp in front of a stammering Kai. Mariah let go of Max and raised an eyebrow as Kai gaped at her in disbelief, tossing her hair behind her as she passed the two men. "No thanks?" She asked as she disappeared into Osiris and Kai grumbled something before shouting back a response, "You twisted little girl! I swear I'll kill you the next time you do that!" She rounded the corner as Max sprinted down the hall as well, both out of earshot of anything Kai might say. A thin smile crossed his face and he twirled his pistol in his right hand.  
  
"Not bad. Considering who it came from."  
  
7:24, Kiev, Ukraine  
  
Black Eagle burst into the hideout of he and his fellow militant organization associates, clutching the gaping katana wound on his belly. He collapsed into a heap in front of his other comrade, another young man dressed in a black, heavily padded bodysuit. "I betrayed us, I went back... I should've died but I came back... They'll follow me for sure... Get out of here..." Black Eagle said through ragged breaths before being carried up by his ally, who handed him over to another. "No. Dean, get Carlo to the hover copter." The Artemis militant commanded and the other man rushed out a back door that led to their camouflaged transportation. The warrior removed a strand of long dark brown hair that fell across his face and unsheathed the nodachi that lay at his waist, bringing it up to a fighting position. Cypher, hidden in the shadows of their dimly lit base, walked out of his secretive location and removed his own blade from its container, readying for combat as well. "Aquila says these two are worth every slash and I certainly agree. Let's finish this quickly." Cypher muttered through his helmet and the other soldier nodded, flinching as the door was cut through by Blaze's katana, while Ice stayed behind him. "Go Blade Eagle!" Cypher shouted through his mask and the two charged at their enemies, stunning them with their superior speed. Cypher's blade met Blaze's in the air, and the mysterious soldier twisted around, bringing his own to the mercenary's throat. "Freeze!" Ice yelled, bringing out her Famas with lightning reflexes, only to find it cut in half by Blade Eagle's elongated nodachi sword. In a split second, the nodachi was also threatening to cut off her throat and the twins soon found themselves being forced to enter the small building in the middle of nowhere.  
  
The two were soon sitting cross-legged on the floor, weaponless, staring up at the icy gaze of Blade Eagle, whose sword was still unsheathed. Cypher walked into the room, quietly approaching both of the silent and calm assassins, who he figured would be a bit more enraged than this. "So, when are you going to kill us?" Ice asked politely, looking intently at the tall figure of Cypher. A laugh escaped the enigmatic soldier's mouth and for a while Ice wondered what was different. Oh yeah, he sounded human. "No. Our leader has a particular interest in you two." Cypher said blandly before walking out of the room, leaving Blade Eagle with the two captives. Blaze stood up abruptly and shook off some dust. "So, who are you guys anyway?" He asked blandly, leaning against the wall and Blade Eagle lowered his nodachi for a few seconds before resting it on his shoulder in an arrogant pose. "The best in our given fields, working together to achieve our leader's vision!" He said proudly, and for a while, Ice and Blaze swore he was giving off some light. But the back door had opened up and the other man had entered, swiftly disproving that notion. Ice also stood up and raised an eyebrow as she surveyed the other boy's clothes. A military jacket placed over a stained forest green shirt and snow-covered jeans. The boy removed the goggles covering his eyes and slung it over his shoulder, grinning widely. "Blade was the former most wanted mercenary in the land, just like our boss." The young, brown-haired man said and a slight sneer crossed the mouth of Blade Eagle. "Both of you two were numbers 2 and 3 to me, remember? I dropped out to join Artemis after that." He explained and Blaze's lip twitched responsively. Ice held him back with a subtle punch behind their backs as the second boy rubbed his gloved hands together. "I developed the Frame system of the government, along with providing help in the Vire project... I'm here to destroy what I have crafted." He said almost dejectedly as Cypher burst through the door with the leader behind him, causing all four of the people inside to face the enigmatic simply known to Ice and Blaze as the boss. Ice stared at the tall, lanky, brown-haired man, struggling to figure out his connection with something she has seen a long time ago. "Remember me?" Dark green sleeveless jersey, even in the freezing weather, mud brown military pants tucked into combat boots, red cloth tied around forehead like that "Rambo" guy... Ice's eyes snapped open and she instinctively tightened her muscles, entering a fighting position. Blade Eagle held out his nodachi warningly and the leader clapped a hand on his shoulder, grinning.  
  
"Matt Aquila! You slick little bastard!" Ice shouted and the leader laughed, his hands on his waist. Blaze blinked, looked at his twin sister then looked at the militant Artemis Organization leader, Matt Aquila. Blaze laughed and walked over to Matt, grinning at the acquaintance. "I guess seeing you reminded my sister of when you betrayed her those 2 years ago." The black-haired Chinese assassin said cheerfully, standing but one step away from Matt. His mouth curled into a sinister grin and he forcefully snatched the pistol that lay on Matt's hip and pointed it at the brown- haired man's chin. "But you happen to have the armor we've been searching for. Hand it over and I might not kill you." Blaze threatened and Matt grinned before poking a recorded tape at Blaze's own chin in response. "Listen to this."  
  
"After this mission, send half of the Vire troops to kill those two. I will have no further need for them."  
  
Ice and Blaze both narrowed their eyes in response and walked away from the group of individuals, shocked by hearing Ivan's voice proclaim their death at the hands of his Vire. "I suggest you join. You'd get a free code name." Matt said cheerily and Blaze made a derisive snort before looking up at his old friend and rival, taking a quick glance at Blade Eagle's wide smile and noticing the sword was still resting in his hands. "Do we even have a choice?" He said and turned to his nodding twin. Ice sighed and threw her arms up in recognition of defeat. "Fine. What are our codenames?" Ice asked in admission of surrender and Matt shrugged casually. "You can keep your old ones actually." Blaze scratched his head and shrugged as well. "Well then, what's yours, hot shot?" He asked and Matt pulled the red cloth covering his eyes down, covering his eyes completely.  
  
"I kept my old one. I don't want them to forget the legacy of me, the dead Blind Eagle."  
  
8:10, Inside Zeus, Somewhere above Russia  
  
Ivan slammed Wesley's back onto the wall, tightening his guillotine- like grip on the captured rebel's throat. The rebel leader's fingers clawed desperately at Ivan's left hand that was wrapped around his neck; his breaths already worn out and frantic from the prolonged torture. Following the standard measures of "investigative" torture in the government special service, Jex had quickly and efficiently brought lasting memories of deep pain and agony to the resilient little rebel. They had forced him to drink liters of water until he had nearly drowned, eventually pushing him to vomit out all of the excess liquids in his body, which dehydrated him to the point of death. They had applied to live electrical cables to his genitals, which, nobody doubted, would bring him a hell lot of throbbing for quite a while. They hung him upside down and beat him like a punching bag, only the people jabbing and hitting him where armed with metal sticks and rods. But he didn't give up yet and he was not going to give in to some little kid who was choking him.  
  
"Tell us where we can get a code to disable that hindrance one of your associates uploaded into Alec." Ivan Elmdor said coldly, drawing blood from the neck of Wesley as his fingers dug in even farther into the sides of his throat. Wesley shook his head slowly and presently received a punch in the stomach from the irritated dictator. Pain exploded throughout his body again but he ignored it as he focused on keeping the information safe within him. There was only one other person who was part of the SEA rebel base that knew who to receive it from but he trusted that person and knew that he would destroy it, as to stop Ivan's plans for world domination. "Tell me, you son of a bitch!" Ivan shouted in rage before delivering another powerful hit to Wesley's heavily wounded stomach area. The defiant leader grinned weakly and Ivan looked like he was about to punch him another time when Sarah walked into the room, calm and prepared as usual. "Sir, may I suggest conversion? It is entirely possible to allow the rebel to keep some of his memories when we convert him." Sarah commented quietly and Ivan dropped the panting Wesley like a sack of potatoes. He raised an eyebrow, thought for a few moments, and turned around to face one of his most deadly agents, if she wasn't the most deadly already. "You are quite smart for a girl. Sarah, pass the order to prepare the vats." Sarah nodded in reply and left the room quietly, leaving a happy-looking Ivan with the convulsing Wesley. Ivan whirled around again and flashed his smile, pointing to the confused and tired rebel below him. "Very soon, you're going to become a killer of your old allies, Rodriguez." Ivan said blandly and Wesley gasped for air before replying in sheer obstinacy. "You can't make me... " Ivan ran a hand through his own black hair and grinned malevolently at the soldier that lay in a heap under him. "Oh, yes we can. I'll have total control over you when you are converted to one of my loyal and lethal Vire." He replied quietly, bending down to grab Wesley's chin so they could see eye to eye.  
  
"Total control, my friend. Total control.  
  
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End of Chapter  
  
Review or I'll sick the Vire on you. Nasty little demons they are. Bwahahahahahaha 


	6. Sleeping My Life Away

Connection Terminated: Vertigo  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that is connected to Beyblades but I do have the intellectual property rights to the plot, some of the original characters and most of the ideas.  
  
Sleeping My Life Away  
  
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Emily had uploaded a debilitating program unto the Advanced Logistics and Electronics Controller, seriously lowering its overall "active" effectiveness, e.g.: Less combat capabilities, hacking potential and foreign system overrides.  
  
However, the program had not removed one crucial thing.  
  
Information.  
  
Every single rebel base was open to Ivan Elmdor and his army, allowing him to pick off each and every one of those now completely helpless rebels like a little boy removing the wings from a fallen dragonfly.  
  
Ivan Elmdor had succeeded where his father had not.  
  
He was going to take revenge on those pests that had been a hindrance to him for so long.  
  
And he was going to make it hurt.  
  
A lot.  
  
1011101010101101010101010101  
  
16:23, Kiev, Ukraine  
  
Mariah huddled closer to Ray in the bare and thin-walled house they were hiding in, even though it was practically freezing inside and out. Her breath turned into miniscule snowflakes as she stared out at the dense snowfall that lay on the small window, their current source of light, which, unfortunately, wasn't too bright. It had been two months since they had escaped the almost inescapable back at the SEA base, which, unsurprisingly, was torn to shreds, and split up to conceal themselves from Ivan's sight. Kai, taking command once more, had gone alone; true to himself. He explained the need to find the people who knew how to remove the block on Alec and advise them to destroy that precious piece of code. Their lives and their entire cause depended on it. Max, Kenny and Emily had traveled to Europe as well but stayed hidden in the vast city of Paris, slowly gathering information about the rebel bases that had not been entirely ripped apart by the attacking Vire. Tyson had tagged along with Mariah and Ray, seeing as both he and the Chinese boy had undergone the same mysterious pain that was inflicted on them. To top it off, she had begun to put on some weight; in light of all the days they had nothing on their table. (Which, strangely enough, was their floor) Well, at least Mariah had some time alone with Ray while Tyson; undercover of course, went searching for other survivors.  
  
"Here, this should help." Ray said in a reassuring way, silently telling her that everything would be all right as he placed his jacket over her shoulders.  
  
Mariah smiled appreciatively and buried her head in his arms, listening to his heartbeat, entirely content with the world for but a brief moment. Ray bent down, slowly parting his lips to meet hers when Tyson came barging into the cramped building, clutching his chest and breathing heavily. "Hell! Talk about good timing in sneaking into the Ukraine base... " Ray and Mariah quickly got off each other and Tyson, momentarily forgetting what he was supposed to say, stared at them in slight queasiness and revulsion. "Uh, okay... " The Japanese rebel mumbled, scratching his nose as the other two's cheeks turned scarlet.  
  
"Bad and good news. The base here in Ukraine's been totally wiped out by those Vire guys. You should have seen all the dead people-" Tyson waved his hands in the air animatedly "- lying on the floor with their eyes open and mouths dripping blood and all. They had their guts ripped out and there was this guy with his legs spread wide apart and-"  
  
Mariah coughed and Tyson stopped in mid-sentence, noticing her narrowing eyes.  
  
"Weeeell, anyway, I snuck into the deeper parts of the base-" The cocky Japanese rebel flashed the fake news reporter tag the three had crafted for him to get access into the base "- and this guy jumps out of this blood- stained closet or something. He grabs my shoulders, starts shaking me dementedly before I punch him across the face. The dude gets some sense into him and jabbers about these Artemis whatever people and then just drops dead." Tyson finished, catching his breath before slumping to a cross- legged position on the cold, hard floor. Ray scratched the back of his head thoughtfully as light filtered through their frosted window, granting an almost ethereal look to the scene. "I heard something about a Russian and Ukrainian-based militant organization before... Might be those Artemis guys." Mariah suggested and the two other rebels turned their attention to her, gazing at her intently. She frowned, trying to remember the exact details of the story she picked up from Raul, the deceased SEA engineer, all those months ago. Those months when they had no idea of the hell that would follow. Those months of peaceful (relatively) and ignorant bliss. Those months that was forever lost in the endless river of time now. She shook her head to remove the wistful ache in her heart and looked up at her two comrades.  
  
"Can't remember a thing. Sorry." She said apologetically and Tyson groaned in frustration, before completely messing up his spiky blue hair. He shook his head in a despairing manner, getting up from his seated position and reaching for their laptop, which served as their connection to their comrades and to the rest of the world via the news and the other branches of media. Tyson ran a cold hand through his hair once more before plopping back down onto the floor and switching the portable computer on. Ray and Mariah crawled up to Tyson to peer at the loading screen of the laptop, practically squeezing the latter in between them. Tyson, fidgeting uncomfortably, typed in a sequence to start up their satellite link to worldwide television. An anime show featuring a bunch of kids piloting gigantic war mechs popped up and Tyson hissed a "Yes" through his teeth. "That Ivan kid's going to appear on TV soon. Heard it from some of the guards at the Ukrainian base." Tyson explained before tapping the number keys on the laptop repeatedly, shifting the programming on their "television" set to the news. Ray nodded in understanding before suddenly grabbing Tyson's button-pressing hand and pointing to the screen. "There. It's him." Ray mumbled and all three pairs of eyes were entirely focused on the show that featured Ivan delivering a speech before huge crowds, watching as well the 3 unfamiliar faces that scrolled the screen along with 3 other faces that they had seen before. Mariah's eyes narrowed as she saw the mug shot of Cypher, a 3 dimensional picture of his face rotating on the screen beside the government's rendition of both Ice and Blaze. "Why is Ivan putting those two under wanted criminals now? There's something weird going on here." She observed and Tyson nodded in agreement, an eerie emulation of Ray's previous gesture.  
  
Drake, Sarah and Jex stood beside their leader as he delivered an extremely compelling speech to the public and even they had to admit he was doing quite well, seeing as he wrote the entire thing by himself. A giant red drape covered a huge, wall-like structure behind the young yet masterful boy, whose carefully planned lies began to dispel the doubts and insecurities of the crowd under them. Sarah glanced behind her shoulder, narrowing her eyes to check if the Vire, which were placed for security reasons, were still lurking in the shadows behind their all so wonderful chief executive. She shook her head quietly, mainly to remove her slight apprehension at having completely unguarded Vire roaming the darkness behind her and to get rid of the feeling of despair and loneliness she held in her chest since her encounter with Ray and Mariah. Something told her that there was more than just one hell of a sniper behind that man who had shot down her bullet and her mind was scrambled with unclear memories of a past she didn't seem to have. Sarah blinked off the ache in her head and chest and turned her attention to Ivan, who was practically soaking himself in the eloquence of the words he had picked for his speech.  
  
"All 6 people shown here and on television sets around the globe are threats to international security and peace. They go under the name of the Artemis militant organization and I am requesting you, the people of the world, to support the military in their effort to capture and stop these agents of bloodshed." Ivan Elmdor promptly made a dramatic gesture to further his monopoly on the crowd's attention and bring his mendacious message to all the ears around him. The three agents holstered their long, mainly decorative rifles to add to Ivan's already super-fine point, garnering claps and cheers from the audience.  
  
"These scum have joined forces with the now almost completely destroyed rebel traitors and are helping those terrorists regain a military foothold right here and mother Russia! We must not let them and the defiant rebels destroy the bonds of our hard-earned peace and prosperity!" Ivan continued, sparking a few agreeing shouts from the gigantic crowd below his platform. Drake's lips folded into a slight grin, glancing at his two, apparently emotionless, comrades. Sarah rolled her eyes and delivered a quick kick to his shin to stop him from acting immature in front of all the people Ivan had summoned. Jex, meanwhile, was twitching uncontrollably, as though he had an itch on his back.  
  
"Under my leadership and with your help, our benevolent soldiers will surely apprehend these anomalies of our times and restore order to our civilization! If we do, we shall even grant these misguided souls the chance to change their ways via our, not my, government's re-education program and make them into productive members of society! They have merely been deceived by this man-" Ivan pressed a miniscule button on the side of his watch, activating a large display hologram that featured a face that seemed to have an all so significant part in Sarah's past. A tall, lanky man with brown-hair that fell along the sides of his head rotated in the hologram. Dressed in a forest green sleeveless shirt, muddy brown military- issue pants that were tucked into black combat boots, the man obviously had some field experience and that was not lost to Jex, Sarah, Drake, Ivan and the audience below them. The most discerning facet of this apparently practiced soldier was the blood red cloth he had wrapped around his eyes, totally concealing them to the public and even to his allies. Sarah compulsively touched her forehead, a hidden memory washing over her like a migraine.  
  
"-Who is also known as Matt Aquila, a former soldier under my father and mutineer against our republic. We need to unite and put up a strong front to stop more people like him from surfacing, thus hindering any more of these so-called "righteous" causes from disturbing our tranquil lives! So, people of the world, hear me, Ivan Elmdor, and together we can forever remove chaos and turmoil from our already war-scarred planet Earth!" Ivan finished regally, punching the cold air with his fist to hammer his lie- riddled ideals into the minds of the people. Cheers erupted from the crowd and claps and shouts of support spread like wildfire across the sea of individuals, which Ivan presently bowed to. He waved to the people whose freedom was stolen from his murdered father, smiling boyishly as to further his image as a benevolent leader. His three agents hastily walked up to him, following him in an almost fatherly protectiveness as he took long strides down the steps of the platform. Sarah, pale, made an impulsive reach for the pistol at her hip; a compelling thought urging her to kill Ivan here and now. "Hey, are you all right?" Jex asked and she quickly nodded before taking in a deep breath. "Get some sleep later, you'll need it."  
  
"Hell, even the world believes that hypocrite now!" Ray shouted angrily as the program ended with the sly dictator shaking hands with the representatives of countries his father had, in a way, commandeered with that memorable global coup de tat that was so quickly changed the roles of power in the world. He fell backwards, lying down on the cold floor and staring at the ceiling dejectedly. Mariah sighed and crawled up to him, nudging his chest with her head before lying down beside him while Tyson, more or less guessing what was going to happen, tucked away the laptop and decided to rest in the other room instead. Ray closed his eyes, thinking of his past life as a beyblader. All the times he and the Bladebreakers had gone to the world tournament, playing against a different team each time and winning against them. A thin frown crossed his face and he rolled over to his side, staring into Mariah's golden eyes. "Do you think we'll even get out of this?" He asked her quietly, stroking the side of her face. She purred reassuringly in response and snuggled up to him, flashing her fangs in that demonic way of hers. "Yes, I do. Look, we've gone so far and I don't think Kai's just going to let us give up like that!" Mariah snapped her fingers for emphasis and placed her head on Ray's chest, once again listening to the quickening pace of his heart. Ray smiled and placed a soft kiss on her forehead as she glided of to a well-deserved sleep. "Yeah, I guess so... " He whispered and soon followed her into dreamland.  
  
18:15, Above Kiev, Ukraine  
  
"So they're planning a worldwide manhunt for us? Big deal, I've handled worse." Matt Aquila replied cockily, reclining in the copilot's seat of the high-speed jet they had bought with Ice and Blaze's money from their previous exploits. He grinned at the communications screen where the silhouette of his correspondent whacked his own forehead, obviously irritated by Matt's blatant immaturity. "Look, I killed an Eagle and fooled another one into believing I was dead. To make it worse, they were my comrades. 6 billion people searching for me are not even half as difficult as that." The Artemis organization leader put both of his hands behind his head in a relaxed position, pulling the red cloth wrapped around his forehead down to cover his eyes for some shut eye. "Plus, if what you're saying is true, then somebody is finally remembering how I really am." Matt added coldly, as if the simple act of placing his scarlet cloth over his eyes had somehow summoned unwanted memories. The jet made a sharp turn as Blaze, sitting beside Matt as the pilot of the speedy plane, adroitly banked it with one deft movement of his hand. "We should be in Brazil in a few minutes. I'll activate the cloaking equipment." Blaze commented quietly, tapping a switch on the dashboard, eliciting a casual wave from the government sniper turned rebel. "Aquila, I believe you should still be more careful. As of now, Ivan is running a global scan on the Internet with that Alec program he stole to locate you." The mysterious informant advised and Matt nodded in reply. "Hey, Blind Eagle doesn't exist in any history book and Matt Aquila appears under "deceased". Blaze and Ice belong to a group of mercenaries whose true identities are erased from international data banks. Dean committed "suicide" a long time ago and both Carlo and Jose were never registered with real names, seeing as their birth certificates were "stolen"." Matt added casually and the other man shook his head before closing the communications line. The sniper shook his head and leaned backwards, drifting off to an uneasy sleep as Blaze slowly circled the plane around a secret rendezvous location, deep in the South American jungle, where they should refuel and restock their weapons. Finally, some sleep for me... He thought, smiling to himself as Blaze began to lower the jet to a reasonable altitude to search for the refueling point. Without warning, dozens of blips suddenly sprung to life on their radar, signaling the arrival of a few Anti-Frame machines that were hidden in the darkened canopy as to spring an ambush on the unwary Artemis militants. Blaze's hand shot out and grabbed Matt's shoulder, shaking him back to awareness as his left hand, still on the joystick, forced the plane into a quick evasive maneuver. Below them, the Anti-Frame giants opened their shoulders, revealing and firing their massive armory of weapons in a metallic rain of destruction. "Aw, shit! Ice, Carlo, Guio! Let's blast the hell out of those machines!" Matt yelled to the soldiers waiting behind the cockpit and quickly released the clutch of his seatbelt before readying for combat. "Blaze, bring us to a reasonable freefall altitude!" He ordered and the mercenary nodded in reply, pulling the joystick to his chest and blasting the plane at an extremely dangerous 70-degree angle to the sky. "We're in for one hell of a joyride."  
  
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End of chapter 


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